CRU exists to provide a fully integrated premier youth soccer program for boys and girls of Metropolitan Boston, ages 10 to 19. We seek to identify gifted players in that area, to form and train them as teams to reach their maximum potential, and to give them the finest experience available at the state, regional, national and international levels. We believe that to have such an experience, a team should be closely competitive with each of those levels. It is incumbent on us to pass these youth along to the best school and college soccer programs that each of them can achieve. Though consequential, this passage is an integral part of our mission.
The accomplishment of this mission is simple in concept: secure the best teachers and coaches in the area, and provide them with all the organizational support necessary to do their job. It is for the realization of this accomplishment, difficult in practice, that the association - as distinct from the teams - exists. Development is a long process, requiring consistency and coordination by all staff over a number of years. A child entering the program at age 10 or 11, and his or her parents, must be able to see in CRU the stability and permanence it will take to emerge successfully as a young man or woman 8 or 9 years later. We believe that a single team, hung around one or two individuals, cannot serve; only the organization as a whole can.
Influence, at the state level and beyond, the development of leagues and other playing circumstances, the improvement of officiating and the progress of youth soccer generally to provide competition for our members.
WHAT WE ASK:
Our logo reads "Serious Soccer - Join the Best". We mean it, and we are. Charles River United is dedicated to further developing players of the very highest caliber through teams aspiring to the top of regional and national performance and sporting prominence. We presume that every CRU player is driven by elemental joy of excelling at a sport he or she loves. We believe that, ultimately, the player who is not will not prosper.
Soccer is the consummate team sport. Virtually everything a player does with CRU will be in a team context. District and state teams emphasize individual prowess, often at the expense of team performance. A CRU coach who does this is not doing his or her job. CRU aims to meld the individual strengths of its players into a single functioning unit, where the components all complement each other, and work together to reach a common goal. A coach may not select the 15 or 16 "best" players at a tryout, but rather the 15 or 16 players who will combine to make the best team.
While CRU focuses on group effort, CRU is not a social or recreational club, at least to the extent that such designations imply discretionary participation as schedule and inclination allow. Town and scholastic programs are for those who wish to play on that basis. Each CRU player has a right to expect that every other player on the team puts all CRU activities above all other sporting, social and extra-curricular responsibilities; indeed, before everything except family and religious functions and academics. We encourage our coaches to demand this dedication, regardless of the pre-eminence or "indispensability" of a given player.
The CRU season is twelve months long. It begins on Labor Day weekend, and ends the following August. No player can choose to play for one or more of the league "seasons" and sit out others. New England weather prevents us from playing outdoors for much of the year. Since continuity is as important as intensity to team progress, indoor training and competition are not optional; they are essential.
Our single-mindedness is also reflected in selection criteria which may seem hard to those more used to intramurals or local leagues. No one has a guaranteed place on the team for more than the year of selection. A player will get no special consideration because his or her sister plays for CRU, or because his or her father or mother has given major volunteer time to the association or team. Your best friend may get cut, as may the player whose parent was an essential part of the car pool. Only raw talent, hard work, dedication and continued significant improvement in skill and contribution to the team will guarantee a place.
We ask a membership fee, but this is not primary. If you are good and dedicated enough, you will join us, regardless of your or your family's means. Obviously, CRU is not for everyone; even many talented players are unwilling to make the commitment and sacrifice required. But only with this level of devotion and tough-mindedness from all its players will a team achieve state, regional and eventually national stature.
WHAT WE OFFER:
For those willing and able to be a part of the association, CRU offers the finest and most comprehensive program of youth soccer education in New England.
Rigorous and complete training in all aspects of the game. Experienced professional or near professional coaches - the team's own, the association's coaching director and consultant specialist - conduct regular sessions year round, diagnose individual strengths and weaknesses, and provide personal and group programs for improvement. From March through November, these are held outdoors. The quality of the pitch says much about the quality of the training. In 1993 we realized a dream: a permanent home which is exclusively ours. The association obtained a 20-year renewable lease on an ideal 10-acre site at the YMCA camp in Hopkinton. Four full sized fields have been completed. We have the finest complex in the Massachusetts Premier League. We can practice, scrimmage and play as and when we want. The fields have been built by us to be of a quality sufficient to serve any professional team in the world. In the winter indoor sessions are held at local indoor venues. Training is geared to the age level of the team, and covers appropriate individual skills, small-group tactics and team strategy.
The highest level league competition available in Massachusetts. Non high-school-age teams (Under 11 through Under 14) play in the Fall Development Division of the Massachusetts Premier League ["MAPLE"]. Over the winter, individual teams play in leagues at the indoor facility of choice. The main competitive season of the year is the spring. MAPLE league play and the State Cup challenge matches in April and May is followed by the State Cup Round Robin in June, and by Regional and National Championships in July for those who qualify.
National and International Tournament Play. Although selection is a matter of individual team choice, CRU teams are expected to play in from 4 to 6 competitive tournaments each year. Most holiday weekends- Labor Day, Columbus Day and Memorial Day especially - are tournament times. Many team travel south or west over Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Development of and preparation for college prospects. Scholarship and admissions assistance is increasingly available for top youth soccer players. Unlike football, baseball and basketball coaches, who recruit primarily from high school programs, college soccer coaches scout non-scholastic youth programs, such as CRU's. MAPLE, State and Regional games all attract college coaches, as do major tournament to which CRU teams travel. Several members of the coaching staff are well connected with college programs around the country. They advise older CRU players on the sporting, academic, financial and political realities of maximizing their chances to play in the college of their choice.
Building of character and values. The individual virtues of discipline, hard work, persistence and self-awareness which success in the CRU program requires have benefit for life beyond the pitch. Community virtues such as cooperation, peer support, patience and restraint are equally necessary on the field, and equally valuable off. Any well-organized team athletic program will foster such development, but soccer is especially suited to rewarding a balance of personal and group emphasis. For those with the love of the sport, which CRU demands, it is the only game in town.
WHO WE ARE:
CRU is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt charitable organization. It is a Massachusetts corporation. It is managed and operated as follows:
Association-wide
Executive Board of Directors. The board is responsible for all aspects of the association - financing, policy, programs, all other staff. All members serve without compensation.
Coaching Director. At the heart of our soccer program is our coaching director. The association employs one professional coach-Rick Copland, formally of Boston College, the Boston Renegades, the Rhode Island Rays and coach of the Opus County Women's Team - as boys and girls directory. He, under contract with the association, and has been hired for terms of two years. His primary responsibility is soccer policy, the actual soccer program and coaching staff. Secondarily, he helps individual teams directly with training sessions and clinics. He sites ex officio as a non-voting member of the Executive Board.
Teams
Coaching Staff. A single head coach is appointed annually for each CRU team. He or she is solely responsible for team composition and for choosing assistance and an administrator. The Coaching Director evaluate all coaches during the year, and each spring propose a slate of coaches for the next year. These recommendations will be followed absent compelling reason to the contrary. No coach has guaranteed tenure beyond one year. Coaches receive stipend to cover expenses associated with their efforts for the association.
Administrators. Each team is managed by an administrator selected by the coach, usually from among the parents of players. Administrators report to the coach and to the clubs administrator, and are responsible for all financial, logistical and technical aspects of the team. Administrators receive an administrator's discount from their child's membership fee.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY:
Players
Attendance. Be there. This includes practices - all of them. Practices - training sessions as we call them - are the heart of the program. They are the course; the games are just the exams. A team cannot be created on a succession of game-day appearances.
Personal Training. Every CRU player is required to work on his own between formal practice sessions. Schedules do not permit enough formal training to maintain condition though these alone. Every coach will tell his or her team what is expected of players on off days.
Parents
Coaching. You are paying to give your child the best youth coaching available. Don't undermine it or your player. Parent "coaching", public or private, however well intentioned, is inappropriate. Soccer is deceptive; it appears to the novice to be a simple game. It is not. A prominent coach describes it as 'speed chess on grass". Each coach has his style and philosophy, his designs for individuals and the team as a whole. Although the coach is not obliged to share these with you, feel free to ask if you have questions; most coaches will happily hold forth - sometimes at tiresome length. If you have objections, talk privately to the coach, and if not satisfied with the result, seek out the Coaching Director or a Board member. But remember, for one year, the coach is the boss.
Game Behavior. We encourage you to support your team vociferously and with gusto. Nothing is worse than parental silence when a scoring chance is missed… except for groans of disgust and dismay. Be upbeat and positive, constructive not destructive. We achieve excellence in part by playing the best opponents. Sometimes we will be outplayed. Losing does not justify denigration of our own or opposing players, coaches or the referee; it is an opportunity for the coach to help players to analyze, to re-think, to improve. The coach is in charge of whatever criticism is to be leveled in the course of this process. Your job is to be supportive and encouraging.
Never bait or criticize the referee, regardless of what you may hear others - including possibly the coach - saying or doing.
(Drafted for the 1993- 1994 season)